Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/New York

EW YORK, one of the original thirteen United States of America, is situated between 40° 29' 40" and 45° 0' 2" N. lat. and between 71° 51' and 79° 45' 54".4 W. long. It is bounded N. by Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence river, which separate it from the province of Ontario; E. by Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut; S. by the Atlantic Ocean, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania; and W. by Pennsylvania, Lake Erie, and the Niagara river.

Topography.—The State of New York has a triangular outline, with a breadth from east to west of 326.46 miles, and from north to south, on the line of the Hudson, of 300 miles. In addition it includes Long Island and Staten Island on the Atlantic coast. Its area is 49,170 square miles,—47,620 square miles, or 30,476,800 acres, being land, and the remainder portions of the great lakes that border it. The surface is more diversified than that of any other State in the Union. The eastern and southern portions are high, and from these the land slopes gently

north and west to Lake Ontario. The mountainous belt of the eastern part is cut through by the great water-gap of the Mohawk valley, which once connected the Ontario basin with the trough of the Hudson below the present ocean-level, and is the most interesting and important feature in the topography of the State.

Mountains.—The mountains of New York form three distinct groups. (1) The Adirondacks, a series of short ranges having a north-north-east and south-south-west direction, form the centre of the elevated region of the north-east section of the State. The highest of these is Mount Marcy, 5344 feet, with several associated summits which reach the altitude of 5000 feet. (2) The Catskill Mountains, with their foothills, occupy about 500 square miles south of the Mohawk valley and west of the Hudson; the highest peaks reach an altitude of 4000 feet. The Helderberg and Shawangunk Mountains are topographically a portion of the Catskills, the first on the north, the second on the south. These all belong to the

Alleghany system, and are connected with the mountains of Pennsylvania by the Delaware Mountains, which have an altitude of from 1600 to 2800 feet. (3) The Highlands of the Hudson, through which the river passes at West Point, are the northern continuation of the Blue Ridge of Pennsylvania, having an altitude of from 1200 to 1800 feet. The so-called mountains of the central and southern counties are portions of a high plateau which connects with the Helderberg and Catskill Mountains on the east. This is cut by eroded valleys in such a way as to leave many elevated points, of which the highest is East Hill in Otsego county, 2300 feet above the sea.

One of the most peculiar and impressive topographical features is formed by the cliffs of the Palisades, which border the Hudson in Rockland county, and are continuous with those of New Jersey.



Geological Map of New York.

Lakes and Rivers.—Two of the chain of great lakes border the State, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, connected by the Niagara river, on which is the most celebrated cataract in the world. Lake Erie gives about 75 miles of coast-line to New York, Lake Ontario over 200. The surface level of the former is 573 feet above the sea, of the latter 245 feet; and this is 606 feet deep. A portion of the eastern border of New York is formed by Lake Champlain, which lies in the trough between the Adirondacks and the Green Mountains. Within the State the number of lakes is very great. The largest is Lake George, famous for its beautiful scenery. Through the central portion a series of peculiar elongated lakes are found which lie with a nearly north-and-south bearing on the slope from southern highlands to the Ontario basin, or the Mohawk valley. The largest of these are Cayuga, Seneca, Oneida, Crooked, Canandaigua, Owasco, and Otsego. These are river valleys once occupied and modified by glaciers and dammed up by moraines. The Adirondack region is famous for its system of lakes, which are favourite places of resort for tourists. Among the rivers of New York the Hudson is the largest and most beautiful. Formerly it ran several hundred feet below its present level, and was the great channel of drainage which led through the Mohawk valley from the interior. Now, by a subsidence of the continent, it is an arm of the sea, and navigable to Troy, 151 miles from its mouth. The Black River, the Mohawk, and the Genesee are all large streams which lie entirely within the State, while the Alleghany, the Susquehanna, and the Delaware rise there, but soon leave it to become the great rivers of Pennsylvania. From the varied topography and the abundant rainfall the number of streams is large, and many of them are marked by

picturesque falls. Besides the great cataract of Niagara, a mile wide and 164 feet high, which New York shares with Canada, there are many other falls worthy of mention, as those of the Genesee at Rochester and Portage, Trenton Falls, the Falls of Ticonderoga, &amp;c. Among the natural features which distinguish the State its mineral springs deserve special mention. Those of Saratoga, Balston, Sharon, Avon, and Richfield are famous throughout the Union. They differ much in chemical composition and medicinal virtues, but all are popular places of resort, and some have gathered round them towns of considerable size.

Climate.—In a general way it may be said that the climate of New York is typical of that of the northern United States, a climate of extremes, hot in summer and cold in winter, and yet healthful, stimulating, and on the whole not disagreeable. The average annual temperature is about 47° Fahr., the average maximum of summer heat 93°, the temperature of 100° being rarely reached, and 102° the highest maximum record. The minimum temperature is about -20° Fahr., never attained in the southern portion, seldom in the central, but often passed by four or five degrees in the most northern counties. The average rainfall is about 40 inches. Frosts begin from September 1st to October 1st, and end from April 1st to May 1st, according to the locality and year. In the Adirondack region the snowfall is heavy, the winter long and severe. In central New York it is not uncommon for snow to accumulate to the depth of 3 or 4 feet, and yet this is not persistent. About New York city and on Long Island the snow rarely exceeds a foot in depth, sleighing is always uncertain, and sometimes the ground will be bare for weeks together. Thus it will be seen that the climate of New York is intermediate in character between that of New England and the Mississippi valley States,—a little milder than the first, severer than the last. The great lakes which border it are never frozen to their centres, and exert an equalizing influence upon the climate of their shores.

In the absence of extensive alluvial plains and marshes, there is little malaria, and the climate is salubrious. About New York city and on Long Island the ocean softens the rigours of winter, and through the influence of the Arctic current, which bathes the coast as far south as Cape Hatteras, renders the summer perceptibly cooler.

The local variation of climate within the limits of the State will be best seen by the following table:&mdash;

Fauna.—At the advent of the whites the fauna of New York included all the wild animals which were found in the north-eastern States of the Union or the adjacent

portions of Canada, but by the cutting off of forests, and the occupation of the surface by farms, the range of the native animals has been greatly reduced, and they have been unceasingly destroyed by man. Formerly the elk, the moose, and the caribou were abundant in the northern part of the State, but are now all exterminated, while the Virginia deer in many localities is still quite plentiful. Of the carnivorous animals, the couguar, the black bear, two species of lynx, the red and grey foxes, the wolf, otter, fisher, pine marten, mink, and skunk still remain, but the wolf is on the eve of extermination, and the wolverine, never abundant, has perhaps migrated northward. Among the rodents the beaver and variable hare are found, but in small numbers, while rabbits, squirrels, rats, mice, field-mice, &amp;c., are still unpleasantly numerous.

Civilization has made but little difference with the reptiles, birds, and fishes. All the birds indigenous to the eastern portion of the continent may probably at times be found within the State, though their relative numbers are affected by the removal of the forests. Among the reptiles are seventeen species of snakes, three of which, two rattlesnakes and the copperhead, are venomous. The fishes include all the species found in the lower lakes, in the rivers of the temperate portions of the continent, and on the Atlantic coast; and the fisheries constitute an important element in the revenues and subsistence of the people. The streams and lakes of the more elevated portions contain brook trout in abundance; those of the lower levels are well stocked with bass, pickerel, perch, and other game fish. The salmon, which formerly inhabited the Hudson and its tributaries, was long since exterminated; but an effort has been made to restock some of the streams, and, like the German carp recently introduced, it may now be reckoned as an inhabitant of the waters of New York. Some of the interior lakes are stocked with a land-locked salmon, or lake trout, a valuable and interesting fish. The oyster industry of the coast has its chief commercial centre in New York city, and an important fraction of the supply of clams, oysters, lobsters, and sea fish is obtained from the New York coast.

Flora.—Originally the surface of New York was occupied by an almost unbroken forest, and, as a consequence of the general fertility of the soil, its topographical diversity, and the range of latitude and longitude, the flora is rich and varied. About seventy species of trees are known to inhabit the State, and these include all found in the adjacent portions of the Union and Canada. The most abundant are oaks, of which there are fifteen species, but with these mingle five species each of maple, pine, and poplar, four species of hickory, three each of elm, spruce, and ash, two of willow, cherry, magnolia, and pepperidge, and one each of larch, liriodendron, dogwood, arbor vitas, balsam, yew, sycamore, honey locust, sweet gum, locust, butternut, black walnut, chestnut, beech, hornbeam, basswood, sassafras, and mulberry. On the summits of the Adirondacks a true alpine vegetation is found, though consisting of but a small number of plants; several of these exist in no other locality in the United States except the mountain summits of Vermont and New Hampshire. The flowering plants and ferns of New York were studied with much care by the late Dr Torrey, and his report upon them forms two of the series of twenty-three quarto volumes which compose the Report on the Natural History of New York. The flowering plants enumerated by Dr Torrey amount to 1540 species, to which a few additions have since been made. The ferns number fifty-four species—more than are found in any other State; the lower forms of plant life, seaweeds, fungi, lichens, &amp;c., are constantly supplying new material, and many years will yet be required for their complete elaboration.

Geology.—The geological structure of New York is more varied and comprehensive than that of any other State, since it includes, with perhaps the exception of the Jurassic, the entire geological column from the Archaean to the Tertiary. A tabular view of the relations of the rocks of New York may be given as follows:&mdash;

The surface exposures of these rocks can be seen at a glance by reference to the accompanying outline map.

The boundaries of the State enclose an area which once formed a part of the eastern declivity of the Archæan continent, of which the Canadian and Adirondack highlands are the most important representatives. These are composed of Laurentian rocks, and are perhaps the oldest portion of the earth's surface. Upon the slope of this old continent the ocean rose and fell in the different geological ages, cutting away the shore by its waves in its advance, and spreading the debris in sheets of sand and gravel—old sea beaches. During long-continued periods of submergence organic sediments, composed of the hard parts of marine animals, accumulated over the sea bottom. In the process of emergence the shallowing and retreating sea

spread over its deep water deposits mixed sediments, the finer wash of the land and organic material, carbonaceous or calcareous. When indurated, these three kinds of deposits became (1) sandstones or conglomerates, (2) limestones, (3) shales or earthy limestones. During the intervals of emergence the surface was more or less eroded, and the elevations gave obliquity to the planes of deposition, so that in each invasion of the sea it deposited its round of sediments unconformably upon the older ones. The repeated submergences which have here left their record did not cover the same area, but overlapped in such a way that the succession of deposits is easily made out,—the different groups which we call geological systems being separable by unconformability along the planes of contact, by lithological characters which are faithful records of conditions of deposition, and by differences exhibited in their fossils, for in the long intervals which separated these inundations the life of sea and land was completely and repeatedly revolutionized.

The processes described above went on through the Cambrian, Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous ages, forming on the south shore of the Laurentian continent the most complete and consecutive record of Palæozoic time of which we have any knowledge. Then the strata along a line passing south-westerly through eastern New York were raised in a series of folds which we call the Alleghany Mountains, and at this time all the interval between the Atlantic and the Mississippi was elevated above the ocean. There it has since remained, the sea rising and falling upon its margin, and leaving its marks, but never submerging the interior. The geological record was continued by minor contributions to the land along the Atlantic coast during the Triassic, Cretaceous, Tertiary, and Quaternary ages, and by the grinding and transporting action of glaciers which once covered the entire surface of the State.

Previous to the elevation of the Alleghanies the sheets of Palæozoic rocks formed a littoral plain sloping gently southward from the Archæan continent. But in the formation of this mountain belt the country traversed by the southern line of the State was left with a surface inclination northward, and between the Alleghanies and the Canadian and Adirondack highlands a broad valley was formed which became the channel of drainage for a great interior area. Through this valley flowed a large river which reached the sea at or near New York island. From the Carboniferous age to the Ice period this was the course of the drainage of the interior, and thus was formed the great water-gap between the Helderberg and Adirondack Mountains, the gate of the continent, through which the tide of migration has flowed from the seaboard into the Mississippi valley, and where the canal and railroad lines have been constructed which are the great arteries of commerce.

During portions of the Tertiary age perhaps the whole, but certainly the eastern margin, of the continent stood many hundred feet above its present level. The drainage of the interior flowed freely and rapidly through the channel which has been described, until that part of it which lies within the State was cut below the present sea-level, and the great river, which as a whole has never been named, but of which the Hudson, the Niagara, the Detroit, and the St Mary's are representatives, reached the ocean 80 miles south and east of New York harbour, for its channel may be traced to that point on the sea bottom, and its mouth was 600 feet below its present one. By a subsequent depression of the land or rise in the ocean-level the sea covered much of its old shore, and filled the channels cut by subaerial erosion; the Hudson became an arm of the sea, and the labyrinth of tideways was

formed which are such a marked feature of the coast, and such important auxiliaries to New York harbour. During the Ice period important changes were made in the topography of the State,—by local glaciers in its advent and decline, by the great ice sheet at its climax,—the first perhaps increasing topographical variety, the second producing monotony by grinding down and rounding over asperities, and filling depressions with the debris.

The basins of the great lakes which border New York,—Ontario, Erie, and Champlain,—and of the peculiar elongated lakes of the interior, are largely the work of glaciers, which broadened and perhaps deepened river channels, and dammed them up with moraines. When the glaciers retreated from the area of New York many of the old channels of drainage were left partially or completely filled, and the flow of surface water took in some cases new directions. Among the obstructed channels was that of the Hudson west of Albany, filled by the Ontario glacier. By this cause the great river flowing from the interior was deflected from its ancient course and found a line of lowest levels leading from the north-east instead of that from the south-east corner of the Ontario valley. In this way the St Lawrence was made the outlet of the interior basin, and the Mohawk dwindled to a local draining stream. Long Island Sound and part of Long Island itself should also be classed among the products of glacial action, the Sound having been scooped out by the great glacier when it left the more resistant ledges of crystalline rocks which occupy south-eastern New York and Connecticut, and plunged into the softer Cretaceous and Tertiary beds which formed the littoral plain that bordered the continent,—the hills of the island being covered, and in part composed of loose material transported by the glacier and deposited along its edge.

Minerals.—The mineral resources of New York, though less varied than those of some other States, are still of great importance. The most valuable of these are extensive deposits of iron ore, viz.:—(1) magnetite, found in great abundance in the Adirondack region, and in Putnam, Orange, and Rockland counties; (2) hæmatite, mined in the vicinity of Rossie (St Lawrence county), Clinton (Oneida county), and elsewhere; (3) limonite, largely worked on Staten Island, and at Amenia, Sharon, &amp;c., on the line of the New York and Harlem Railroad; (4) siderite, mined at Hyde Park on the Hudson. The production of ore from these mines in 1879 was 1,239,759 tons, valued at $3,499,132; and New York is surpassed in the quantity of iron produced by Michigan and Pennsylvania only.

The quarries of New York are numerous, and they furnish a great variety of products:—granite in the Adirondacks and along the Hudson; roofing slate in Washington county; white marble in Westchester and St Lawrence counties; red marble at Warwick, Orange county; black marble at Glenn's Falls; verde antique at Moriah and Thurman. Sandstone comes from Potsdam, Medina, and various other localities; shell-limestone from Lockport and Hudson; excellent flagging from Kingston on the Hudson; and paving stone from the trap of the Palisades. In 1880 the quarries of New York numbered two hundred and fifty-one, and the value of their product was $1,261,495. A large amount of hydraulic cement is supplied from the quarries at Rondout (Ulster county), Manlius (Onondaga county), and Akron near Buffalo; also gypsum from the vicinity of Syracuse. The deposits of these substances are very extensive, and their production could be increased indefinitely. Another item of importance among the mineral resources of the State is the salt produced from the salt-wells at Syracuse; these have been worked for

many years, and the present annual product is 10,997,408 bushels, having a value of $1,374,666. In south-western New York gas and oil springs are numerous, and at Fredonia the gas has been used in lighting houses for half a century. Recent discoveries show that the petroleum fields of Pennsylvania extend into New York, and it is probable that petroleum will soon claim a place among the mineral products of the State.

The Amboy clays of New Jersey extend across Staten and Long Islands. With further investigation they may prove valuable in the one State as in the other. (J. S. N.*)

NEW YORK, the principal city of the United States in point of wealth and population, and, next to London, the most important commercial and financial centre in the world, lies mainly on Manhattan Island, which is situated at the upper end of New York Bay, between the Hudson River and East River, on the west and east respectively, and the Harlem River and Spuyten Duyvil Creek, small connecting tide-ways which separate it from the mainland on the north-east and north. The legal limits of the municipality also include on the northern side a portion of the mainland which formerly constituted the towns of Morrisania, West Farms, and Kingsbridge, the boundary on the N. being the city of Yonkers and on the E. the Bronx and East Rivers, containing in all 41½ square miles, or 26,500 acres, of which Manhattan Island makes 22 square miles, or 14,000 acres. They also contain the small islands in the East River and New York Bay known as North Brother's, Ward's, Randall's, Blackwell's, Governor's, Bedloe's, Ellis, and the Oyster Islands. The city-hall stands in 40° 42' 43" N. lat. and 74° 0' 3" W. long., and is about 18 miles distant from the ocean, which is reached through the upper and lower bay, together constituting a harbour of the first order. The upper bay has an area of 14 square miles and the lower bay of 88 square miles of safe anchorage. The ship channels have from 21 to 32 feet and from 27 to 39 feet of water according to the state of the tide. The Hudson and East Rivers also afford the city 13¼ square miles of good anchorage. The tide rises and falls on the average 43 inches. Manhattan Island, as well as the adjacent country to the north and east, is composed mainly of rocks, chiefly gneiss and mica schist, with heavy

beds of coarse-grained dolomitic marble and thinner layers of serpentine. These rocks have been usually supposed to be Lower Silurian, but Professor Newberry holds that they have so great a similarity to some portions of the Laurentian range in Canada that it is difficult to resist the conviction that they are of the same period. The deep troughs through which the Hudson and East Rivers now find their way through New York harbour to the ocean are supposed by the same geologist to have been excavated in the late Tertiary period, in which Manhattan Island and the other islands in New York Bay stood much higher than they do now, when Long Island did not exist, and a great sandy plain extended beyond the Jersey coast some 80 miles seaward. Manhattan Island, for half its length from the southern point, slopes on each side from a central ridge. On the upper half of the island the ground rises precipitously from the Hudson River in a narrow line of hill, which again, on the eastern side, sinks rapidly into a plain bordering on the Harlem and East Rivers, and known as Harlem Flats. The surface is throughout rocky, with the exception of this plain, and levelling on a great scale has been necessary in laying out streets. The district beyond the Harlem river, which extends as far north as the city of Yonkers, is traversed by lines of rocky hill running north and south, and still thickly wooded. The original settlement out of which New York has grown was made on the southernmost point of the island, and it has, since the beginning of the 18th century, spread due north and from river to river.



New York in 1695.

The street called Broadway runs for nearly 3 miles along the crest of the island, forming for that distance the central thoroughfare from which streets spread with some regularity to the water on each side. The leading thoroughfares originally followed the line of the shore, along which the earliest buildings were chiefly erected, the central ridge being the last to be occupied, until the city reached what is now known as Wall Street, the site of which was marked by a rampart and stockade extending from river to river across the island. Within this space the streets were laid out either as convenience dictated or as old pathways suggested, without any general design or any attention to symmetry, and were named, for the most part, after prominent settlers. The first regular official survey of the city, tracing the line of the streets, was made in 1656, when Wall Street was its northern limit. In 1807 the present plan of the city was adopted, with its broad longitudinal avenues crossed by side streets at right angles, beginning at a point about two miles from the Battery and running the whole length of the island. The erection of buildings along these streets has led to the levelling of the region below the Central Park, but in the park the varied outline which once characterized the whole island is still retained. The precipitous banks of the Hudson river at the upper end have also compelled a treatment in which the original configuration of the ground is

and the streets and roadways are adapted to it. The city in its growth northward absorbed several suburban villages known as Greenwich, Harlem, Manhattanville, Fort Washington, Morrisania, and Kingsbridge.

General Aspect.—The appearance of New York everywhere but in the leading thoroughfares is usually disappointing to strangers. The pavement of all the streets, except Broadway and Fifth Avenue, is bad, and the street cleaning in all but the principal streets is very defective. The lower part of the city, which is the centre of trade, is generally well kept, and contains a large number of imposing buildings. Wall Street in particular, which is now, after Lombard Street, the most important haunt of moneyed men in the world, has several banks of effective architecture, together with the United States customhouse; while Broad Street, which runs off from it at right angles, besides having the stock exchange, is being rapidly occupied at its upper end by handsome buildings of vast proportions intended for the offices of merchants and bankers. After the city had spread beyond Wall Street, the well-to-do portion of the population and the leading retailers seem to have clung to Broadway as the great line of traffic and trade. For one hundred years the wealthy residents built their houses along it, or, if in the streets running off from it at right angles, as near it as possible; and the shops followed them up closely. As population grew during this period the private dwellings of the better class simply moved up farther on Broadway and the adjacent streets, leaving the old houses to be converted into shops. The farther from Broadway, and the nearer the river on either side, the cheaper land was, and the poorer the class of houses which sprang up on it. This fondness for Broadway in a great degree explains the aspect of the city. About a mile and a half from the Battery, or southernmost point of the island, the cross

streets which up to this line are mostly named after local notables of the colonial period, become designated by numbers, and are separated by equal intervals, known as &ldquo;blocks,&rdquo; of which twenty form a mile. Up to Eighth Street, Broadway divides the streets which cross it into east and west. After Eighth Street, Fifth Avenue, which begins at a handsome square, known as the Washington Square, lying a short distance west of Broadway, becomes the dividing line, and continues to be so out to the Harlem River, a distance of 8 miles. Broadway at Fourteenth Street runs into Union Square, which contains statues of Washington (equestrian), La Fayette, and Lincoln, and is surrounded by large shops; it then trends westerly towards the Hudson River, and thus crosses Fifth Avenue (which runs due north) at Twenty-Third Street, where it enters Madison Square, another open space, on the west side of which are clustered several of the largest hotels in the city. Fifth Avenue has played for the last forty years the same part, as the fashionable street, which Broadway played in the preceding period. It was long the ambition of wealthy men to live in it. It is lined from Washington Square to the Central Park, a distance of 3 miles, with costly houses, mostly of brown stone and red brick, without much architectural pretension, and producing from the preponderance of the brown stone a somewhat monotonous effect, but perhaps unequalled anywhere as the indication of private wealth. Fashion has long permitted, and of late has encouraged, resort to the side streets as places of abode, but the rule is nevertheless tolerably rigid that one must not go beyond Fourth Avenue, two blocks on the east side, or Sixth Avenue, one block on the west side, if one wishes to live in a good quarter. Within the district thus bounded the city presents a clean and orderly appearance, but mainly owing to the exertions of the householders themselves.



New York in 1728.

Harbour Defence.—For this the city depends on forts situated at the western entrance to Long Island Sound, at the Narrows (a passage between the upper and lower bays), and in the harbour itself. All these are confessedly powerless against a fleet armed with modern ordnance. The forts at the entrance of the Sound are Fort Schuyler, situated on Throgg's Neck, and a fort on Willett's Point on the opposite shore. The defences at the Narrows consist of Forts Wadsworth and Tompkins and several detached batteries on the Staten Island shore, and of Fort Hamilton and several batteries on the opposite Long Island shore. The forts in the bay are small and weak structures, and comprise Fort Columbus, Castle William, and some batteries, all on Governor's Island, and Fort Gibson on

Ellis Island. Fort La Fayette, made famous during the war of the rebellion as a prison, was destroyed by fire in 1868, and Bedloe's Island, on which stood Fort Wood, is now given up for the reception of Bartholdi's statue of Liberty.



History.—The history of the first Dutch settlements at Manhattan, and of their transference to England, is sketched in the article on. Down to the Revolution the history of the city is to all intents and purposes that of the province at large. The population grew slowly but steadily, and so did the trade of the place,—the Dutch language and influence, however, gradually giving way to the English. During the Revolution the city, while containing a large body of loyalists, shared in the main in the feelings and opinions of the rest of the country, but was cut off from active participation in the struggle by being occupied at a very early period of the war by the British troops, and it was the scene of their final departure from American soil on November 25, 1782. Since the Revolution its history has been principally the record of an enormous material growth, the nature and extent of which are described in other parts of this article. It was the capital of the State of New York from 1784 to 1797, though the legislature met several times during this period at Albany and Poughkeepsie. From 1785 to 1790 it was the seat of the general Government, and there the first inauguration of Washington to the presidency occurred on the 30th of April 1789.

Population.—The population of New York, in spite of the great attractions of the site, increased very slowly for the first century after its settlement. When the Revolution began it amounted to less than 22,000, and the city stood far below Boston and Philadelphia in importance. It was, too, dominated to a degree unknown in the other Northern States by the landowners whose estates lined the Hudson as far up as Albany, and who played the leading part in society and politics. The original constitution of colonial society was thoroughly aristocratic, and it was maintained almost intact until after the Revolution, the large landed estates along the Hudson being still held by the descendants of the original Dutch grantees, and let on tenures which were essentially feudal in their character. In spite of the large influx of settlers from New England and other parts of the country, the Revolution found the Dutch elements in New York society still strong, if not dominant, and the political ascendency of the territorial families on the Hudson on the whole but little diminished. After the Revolution the growth of the city population became more rapid, but it did not reach 100,000 until 1815, nor 160,000 until 1825. From this date it grew by leaps and bounds until it reached, in 1880, 1,206,299, although a large body of persons whose business lies in New York reside in Brooklyn or Jersey City, on the other side of the East and Hudson Rivers respectively, or in the lesser suburbs, and are not included in the census return. At the end of 1883 the population was estimated at 1,337,325. The impetus which the population received in 1825 was due to the opening of the canal connecting the Hudson with Lake Erie, which made New York the commercial entrepot for a vast and fertile region such as lay behind no other port on the eastern coast. The tendency of foreign trade to concentrate at New York, which has since reduced many small but once flourishing ports along the Atlantic coast, and has taken away from Boston and Philadelphia a good

deal of the chief source of their early prosperity, at once began to show itself, and has apparently lost none of its force since the railways came into use to supplement or supersede the canals.

In considering New York as a commercial port, the population of several suburbs within 10 or 15 miles radius should be taken along with it. Including only that of Brooklyn (556,663) and of Jersey City (120,722), the total would be 1,883,684. Of the 1,206,299 forming the population of the municipality of New York proper in 1880, 478,670, or nearly one-third, were of foreign birth. Of these 163,482 were Germans and 198,595 Irish, forming together by far the largest and most important part of the foreign element. Of the total population, 336,137 are males above the voting age, and the females exceed the males by about 25,000. In the native American population, amounting to 727,629, there are 647,399 natives of the State of New York, only 80,330 coming from other States. New Jersey furnishes the largest contingent, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Connecticut following next, though every State and Territory in the Union contributes something. There are no means of ascertaining the proportion of the inhabitants born within the city limits; it is probably smaller than even in London or Paris.

The heterogeneous character of the population, however, so largely composed of persons who come from widely different parts of the globe to seek their fortune, while infusing great energy into commercial and industrial operations, has had an unfortunate effect on the municipal life of the place. It has prevented the growth of a healthy local pride among the successful men of business, many of whom labour with the intention of passing their closing years elsewhere, a sentiment particularly strong among the prosperous New Englanders, whose affections are very apt to be fixed on the place of their birth. The result is that, considering the very large fortunes which have been made in the city during the last century, it has profited but little, compared with others in America, by the gifts or endowments of its wealthy men. The same cause has operated to some extent to prevent hearty co-operation in municipal affairs. The inhabitants of the different nationalities live much apart, both in politics and in society. The Germans, whose social life is very active, give but little attention to local politics, although they form, owing to their intelligence, order, and industry, a very valuable element in the population. Germans head a good many of the principal banking and commercial houses. A considerable proportion of those settled in New York are skilled artisans; cabinetmaking and upholstering in particular are largely in their hands. They supply also most of the music of the city, do nearly all its brewing and a considerable portion of its baking, and furnish a very large contingent in the work of all the leading manufactures. They supply comparatively few of the domestics of either sex, or of the manual labourers. Difference of language, combined with the absence of political training at home, keeps the Germans from taking a very active part in politics, except to resist some of the attempts at restrictive legislation directed against their beer drinking and Sunday amusements, which the American temperance advocates frequently make. As a rule it may be said that the prominent Germans in the city, like the Catholic Irish, belong to the Democratic party.

The port of New York is the great gateway for immigrants coming to the United States. Of the 7,892,783 immigrants who have come to the country from the years 1855 to 1882 inclusive, 5,169,765 have landed at New York city. The largest number landed there in one year was 476,086 in 1882. Germany sends the

greatest number, Ireland coming next, England third, and Sweden fourth. From 1847 to 1881 inclusive the German immigrants arriving in New York have numbered 2,498,595; the Irish, 2,171,982; the English, 834,328; and the Swedish, 208,505. The total number of immigrants landed at New York during the years 1858 to 1862 inclusive was 404,918; from 1863 to 1867 it was 1,009,641; from 1868 to 1872, 1,209,011; from 1873 to 1877, 614,219; in 1878 it was 75,347; in 1879, 135,070; in 1880, 327,371; in 1881, 455,681; in 1882, 476,086; and in the first six months of 1883 it was 257,635. The Irish emigrants who settle in New York are to a considerable extent a deposit left by the stream of emigration which enters the country at that port. The more energetic and thoughtful, and those who have any money, push on to the west; the penniless and the shiftless are apt to stay where they land, and furnish the city with most of its unskilled labour, although of late years they have been exposed to considerable competition from Italians, mainly from southern Italy. The resource of a large number of the more pushing is apt to be liquor dealing, which generally brings them influence in ward politics, and secures recognition from the party leaders as a means of communicating with and controlling the rank and file. The great body of the porters and waiters in the hotels and second-class restaurants, of the carters and hackney-coach drivers, a large proportion of the factory workers, and almost the entire body of household servants are Irish also, and for the most part a saving and industrious body.

The social life of New York in the earlier days, and, in fact, down to 1825, took its tone from the landholding aristocracy. Social traditions were, however, principally Dutch, and were characterized by the simplicity and frugality of that people. As the place grew in wealth and population, the ascendency of the old Dutch families was gradually lost. The successful commercial men who came to New York from all parts of the country became the real local magnates, and business prosperity became the chief sign and cause of social distinction. This state of things still exists. There is no other city in the United States in which money gives a man or woman so much social weight, and in which it exercises so much influence on the manners and amusements, and meets with so little competition from literary, artistic, or other eminence. The luxury of domestic life is carried to a degree unequalled in any other city. The entertainments are numerous and costly, and the restaurants, of which Delmonico's is the chief, have achieved a world-wide fame. The number of horses and equipages has greatly increased within twenty years under the stimulus given by the opening of Central Park, the drives of which on fine afternoons in April and May and the early part of June present a scene of great brilliancy. The city is, however, almost completely deserted during the summer months by the wealthy, who fly to country houses along the coast from New Jersey as far up as the province of New Brunswick, or to the mineral springs of Saratoga, or to Europe. Thirty years ago it was the ambition of rich men to own country houses along the Hudson river, the scenery of which possesses great grandeur, but its banks have of late been infested by malaria, and for this and other reasons the tide of fashion has been turned to the seaside, and more particularly to Newport in Rhode Island, which is now a city of marine villas. For people of small means New York is slenderly provided with summer entertainments, except such as are afforded by the beauty of the suburbs and by the many water-side resorts within easy reach on the Hudson, the New Jersey coast, and Long Island Sound, and especially at Coney Island, which is really a continuation of the sandy beach that extends all

along the south side of Long Island. Its western extremity is distant from the Battery about 8½ miles in a straight line, and its extreme length is about 5 miles. Since 1874, when capitalists suddenly woke up to the capabilities of the spot, a number of favourite resorts have sprung up on the island, with monster hotels, in one of which as many as four thousand people can dine at once, conveniences for surf-bathing, and a great variety of amusements. The island is reached by steam and horse cars, by steamboats, and by carriages. The Germans have beer gardens on a grand scale, both on Manhattan Island and elsewhere which they frequent in vast numbers. The Irish organize picnics to groves and woods along the Hudson and East Rivers, which are let for that purpose. Excursions by water down the harbour and up Long Island Sound are very numerous. For this species of amusement there are few cities in the world so well situated.

New York has about thirty places of amusement using scenery, not including a few small variety theatres of little importance; of all these the Metropolitan Opera House is much the largest. Its stage is 96 feet wide, 76 feet deep, and 120 feet high. There are seventeen outside entrances, six of them 10 feet wide; and the whole structure is fire-proof. The chief foyer is 34 feet wide and 82 feet long, with a parlour so connected that the foyer can be used as a lecture-room, the parlour giving place for a stage. The seating capacity of the auditorium is about three thousand. Of the other theatres the largest are Miner's Bowery, Miner's Eighth Avenue, Academy of Music, M&lsquo;Kee Rankin's, Niblo's, Fourteen Street Theatre (Haverly's), Thalia, Criterion, London, Harrigan and Hart's, Cosmopolitan, Fifth Avenue, Star, Twenty-third Street, Union Square. Beside the theatres there are two fine concert and lecture-rooms—Steinway Hall and Chickering Hall.

The clubs of New York may be divided into two classes,—the political and social, and the purely social. To the former belong the Manhattan and the Union League; to the latter the Century (1847), Harmonie (1852), Knickerbocker (1871), Lotus (1870), New York, St Nicholas, Union (1836), and University (1865). The Manhattan Club (with some 570 members) is the local club of the Democratic party, founded during the closing years of the civil war, and reorganized in 1877. The Union League Club was founded in 1863, in order to give to the Federal administration during the war the organized support of wealthy and influential men in the city, and it has been ever since the Republican social organization of the city. The Century Club represents literature, art, and the learned professions, and owns a valuable collection of pictures and a well-selected library. All the members of the Harmonie Club speak German. The original plan of the Lotus Club looked to a membership of literary men and artists, and members of the musical and dramatic professions.

Periodicals published in New York City, May 1, 1883.